Atticus Gatsby
Yeah, I understand that Tolkein's time was a sexist one. But when creating a story in the 'high fantasy' genre (as Tolkein was), the author gets to include or exclude whatever he or she likes. Tolkein chose to include sexism. I guess I am asking: does the sexism of Tolkein's time excuse his shortsightedness when it came to female characters in his writing? And does the lack of female characters in his book excuse the lack of female characters in the film?
I don't think he was sexist, I just think his works reflect the times he was living into. Of course he could have added females because is a work of fantasy but an artist's work is often born through the reality the person lives in. Also he was really into medieval things where knights were the ones fighting and women were saved by dragons and all, so is not all that surprising.
If you were to write a book you would probably put both females and males characters and that again is because of the reality we live in, where women are (or should) equal to men.